1 player has darkvision, no one else does, how to handle that in combat

[cmastah]

The title pretty much sums up my problem. Either someone drops darkness on the party or they're in an unlit area with monsters afar. Sadly my players have trouble not meta-gaming when it comes to tactics, they'll abuse whatever advantage they can get (and sometimes they do it unintentionally) and I'm having trouble deciding how to deal with the map. So far I'm simply sticking the minis regardless, but I want them to feel the struggle of fighting in darkness.

[Tiny Coffee Golem]

Blindfold the appropriate players. ;-)

[cartmanbeck]

My best suggestion would be to remove all the enemy minis AND the mini of the darkvision player from the board, and quickly draw a small version of the board that you can show to only you and the darkvision player. If that player decides that his character will shout out things like "they're over here!" and such, then you can have the other players move toward the source of the sound (just use a marker to show which direction the sound came from for each player, don't actually put that mini back on the board) and then they can decide if they want to move that way or what.

[Friend of the Dork]

Yeah, basically just let the DV character know where the enemy is (on his turn), and have the figures off the board in everyone elses turn. Blindfolds should not be necessary, just ask them to turn around for a few seconds.

[Tiny Coffee Golem]

Friend of the Dork wrote:

Yeah, basically just let the DV character know where the enemy is (on his turn), and have the figures off the board in everyone elses turn. Blindfolds should not be necessary, just ask them to turn around for a few seconds.

I just think blindfolds would be amusing as the characters describe where they want their characters to go. It'll help add to the feeling of helplessness.

Just don't get crazy.

[GeneticDrift]

KO the dark vision char first :)

Since s/he can talk out of turn it ends up not mattering much. "Fighter move 2 paces forward 12 o'clock, cleric short step back and channel, cavalier follow your mounts nose".

[darkwarriorkarg]

GeneticDrift wrote:

Since s/he can talk out of turn it ends up not mattering much. "Fighter move 2 paces forward 12 o'clock, cleric short step back and channel, cavalier follow your mounts nose".

This +1

[cmastah]

Tiny Coffee Golem wrote:

Friend of the Dork wrote:

Yeah, basically just let the DV character know where the enemy is (on his turn), and have the figures off the board in everyone elses turn. Blindfolds should not be necessary, just ask them to turn around for a few seconds.

I just think blindfolds would be amusing as the characters describe where they want their characters to go. It'll help add to the feeling of helplessness.

Just don't get crazy.

*puts torture devices away* Aw :(

That's actually not a bad idea, I could ask them which direction they want to go and they can describe it to me.

@cartmanbeck
That was my original idea, but I was worried that combat might drag out as I handle both teams of players.

One other thought that enters my mind is to add the alphabet and numbers to the sides of the battlemat and then hand coordinates to the DV player (while following cartmanbeck's idea to remove his miniature from the map). As it is, due to the armor the DV cleric is wearing, he can only move four squares anyway, so figuring out where he stops ought to be easy. The players though will still be able to see the constructed map.

I may actually end up going with tiny coffee golem's idea of blindfolds, I think the players may actually be excited at the idea as well.

EDIT:
@GeneticDrift, that's actually a good point, the last time they were in a dark dungeon, the fighter simply told the cleric to direct him to the action.

[Tiny Coffee Golem]

cmastah wrote:

Tiny Coffee Golem wrote:

Friend of the Dork wrote:

Yeah, basically just let the DV character know where the enemy is (on his turn), and have the figures off the board in everyone elses turn. Blindfolds should not be necessary, just ask them to turn around for a few seconds.

I just think blindfolds would be amusing as the characters describe where they want their characters to go. It'll help add to the feeling of helplessness.

Just don't get crazy.

*puts torture devices away* Aw :(

That's actually not a bad idea, I could ask them which direction they want to go and they can describe it to me.

@cartmanbeck
That was my original idea, but I was worried that combat might drag out as I handle both teams of players.

One other thought that enters my mind is to add the alphabet and numbers to the sides of the battlemat and then hand coordinates to the DV player (while following cartmanbeck's idea to remove his miniature from the map). As it is, due to the armor the DV cleric is wearing, he can only move four squares anyway, so figuring out where he stops ought to be easy. The players though will still be able to see the constructed map.

I may actually end up going with tiny coffee golem's idea of blindfolds, I think the players may actually be excited at the idea as well.

EDIT:
@GeneticDrift, that's actually a good point, the last time they were in a dark dungeon, the fighter simply told the cleric to direct him to the action.

Have the one with darkvision call out instructions as if he were in the room then you move the pieces based on what the blindfolded characters say. It should make for a memorable encounter.

[Shuriken Nekogami]

there is this thing called miss chances. they use percentile dice, and depending on the lighting, have either a 20 or 50 percent chance of negating an entire attack. that alone should be a sufficient penalty.

or spend 75 gold pieces on an Ioun Torch.